Charcoal package



J. E. FOOTE CHARCOAL PACKAGE Oct. 4, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 25, 1957 INVENTOR y/mw @0059 BY Emu.

Locus ATTORNEY J. E. FOOTE CHARCOAL PACKAGE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 25, 1957 INVENTOR BY L Au L).

LQQRS 2,955 lc Patented Oct. 4, 196 01:

Notwithstanding the advantages achieved by the priorart charcoal package, there were nevertheless certain features of it which could be improved, and it is to these 2,955,029 features and characteristics that the present invention is directed. CHARCOAL PACKAGE It is therefore an object of the present invention to James E. Foote, Westport, Conn., assignor to Diamond provide a package of burnable material containing char- National Corporation, a corporation of Delaware coalin which a relatively greater amount of burnablematerial is disposed at the bottom of the package.

Filed 1957 Sen 692442 Another object is to provide a package of charcoal '3 Claims. (Cl. 44-40) in a burnable container in which more rapid combustion of the charcoal will take place without the addition of any other ignition material.

It is a further object of the present invention to pro- The present invention relates to a charcoal package vide a package of charcoal which will cause the charand more particularly to a charcoal package made of Coal to stay piled in a pyramidal form rather than to a readily combustible paper product container in which fail apart and spread out, this to Obtain a more Tepid the product is shaped to be readily molded by known ignition and hotter molding procedures and wherein the package has superior another Object of the Present illVeIliiOn is t proburmng qualitie to tho h t f k vide a charcoal package having a chimney therethrough In recent years there has come into widespread use n w h the him y is so shaped that as h material. the practice of families cooking their dimers over outthereof bums y, the Charcoal l ll int the Chim door fires. Generally speaking, a fire in which the major y p to ihils take advantage of greater e clement is charcoal in one of its forms is made in a Which i Ht in that space. 1 stationary or portable grill. The meat and vegetables Still another object of the present invention is the to be cooked are then placed on the grill and are thus PrOVisiOh of a Charcoal Package in which Charcoal i flavored with the charcoal smoke, as well as being cooked be lied automatically into (the Piirt of the u n by the heat from h h l, semblage which is the hottest, whereby to promote the At first the common procedure for obtaining a charignition 0f the ehel'eoalcoal fire was to purchase charcoal briquettes in bulk Other objects and the 11shire and advantages of he and to attempt to ignite a bed of the charcoals with instant ihVehiion will be pp from. the ing kindling made from paper or the like. Later, there description taken in Conjunction with the o p y came into widespread use a liquid igniting material for drawings, wherein! the charcoal which could be sprayed onto the charcoal 1 is 'P P View looking ieward the bottom from the container, and then the charcoal bed lit by a Of all imp Package in accordance t h invenmatch applied to the igniting liquid. It was soon disiion; covered that this arrangement had its deficiency, as it 2 is a cross-Sectional View taken 11 the line 2-2 required the person making the fire to remove the char- Of gcoal from its bulk package and place a portion of that g 3 is a P1811 View Oi'the bottom of the device; package in the grill. This, of course, was often a very 4 is a cross-sectional View t n il/the line 4-4 messy job, so that it was difficult to make the fire withof Figs- 1 and and out soiling the hands, and oftentimes also the clothes. 5 is a P View of the p of the Package The above problems were solved to a large extent by Referring new to the drawings, there is shown in 1 the introduction of a self-contained package in which a Package 10 made of tw0 P a first P 11 iS n charcoal was sealed in a dust-tight manner. The package the shape, generally, of an iflVelied y, and the bOttOm was made of a combustible material, preferably molded P 12 iS.iI1 the shape of a Cover for the Y- AS best pulp, and was readily ignitable by the ordinary match. seen 2, the pp P 11 has p y tapering Th h l was h h b h b i ld pulp, extenor side walls 13 and a central downwardly taperso that no separate ignition material was necessary, nor s chimney with an ihiill'hed bottom flange Beth was it necessary to handle the charcoal separately, as chimney and Wells 13 are joined by a flat P it could be handled completely by merely picking up the The BP P 11 is Preferably a unitary Piece of molded burnable package in which it was disposed, the package P p It being noted that the shape of the pp P b i du t oof as h b mentioned b 11 is relatively simple and therefore one which may be The package referred to comprises a tray in which 1Tieitiefi'wiih TeiaiiVe ease from? P p y- These the charcoal was deposited, the tray having downwardly skilled in the am of P p melding will appreciate tapering side walls and a central upwardly taperin it is a comparatively simple task to make a mold for chimney. The tray was provided at its bottom with the shape of the P and also to separate the P indentations leading from the outside into the chimney, 11 from its mold Once it has been made. so as to provide sufficient air for combustion. A cover As y be seen from Figures 1, 2 and it is the was l d on h tray d dh d thereto b l lower part 12 which contains some of the more complex thi cover was generally l l except fo i d i structure which is necessary to achieve the desired results. adjacent to the exterior margin and adjacent the hole Thus, it y be seen from i that the bottom P with which the central chimney of the tray communilz-has foul downwardly eXieIldiIlg P 17, 19 and d Th prior art package was i i d b l i 20, each of which has a concave recess therein. The a match to h package at h b of h hi so part 12 also has a central hole or aperture 21 having a that the chimney began burning first and thereafter the flange 22 therearollnd for engagement with the bottom rest of the package was consumed by the flames. With P of ihe chimney 14 and adjacent flange 22 a the prior art device, complete ignition of a substantial lighting edge A flange 24 adjacent the eXieIiOf portion of the charcoal took place in approximately gin of part 12 cooperates with the exterior side walls 13 twenty minutes, this being substantially less than that of the art 11, in the manner best shown n Fig. 2.

obtainable with the material available before the introduction thereof.

As will be apparent, the pads 17, 18, 19 and 20 are to provide a passage through which air may flow from a region exteriorly of the package into the lower part of the chimney 14 and they are shaped in the manner shown to aid in feeding charcoal to the chimney space.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the bottom of the package 10, showing how the four pads 17, '18, 19 and 20 cooperate to provide air passages leading to the chimney 14.

Fig. 4 is a view on a slightly enlarged scale showing how the concavity of two of the pads, pad 19 and pad Q0, cooperate with the charcoal and the chimney 14 to feed charcoal into the chimney space.

The simple construction of the part 11 is seen also in Fig. 5, which also serves. to emphasize the ease with which part 11 may be molded.

When the package of the present invention is to be used, it is ignited by applying a match to edge 23 at the base of the chimney 14. The molded pulp of the chimney 14 will begin to burn first, and .at the same time there will be a conflagration of the part 12 as the fire proceeds along it from the base of the chimney 14. Thereafter, the fire will reach the exterior side walls 14 and consume them along with the top 15. The charcoal which is adjacent the lower part of the chimney 14 will be the first to be ignited; thereafter, as the chimney 14 burns away, the charcoal in the package adjacent thereto will have no support and will tend to fall or slide into the chimney space, aided by: the. shape of pads 17, 18, 19 and 20. Since this space is the hottest part of the entire package, this has the advantageous result of feeding more fuel into the hottest part of the fire. This, of course, aids in the rapid combustion of the entire amount of charcoal in the package.

In addition to the above feature, it will be understood that because the largest base of the package, i.e., the part 12, is at the bottom of the package during burning, and since there is comparatively greater amount of charcoal adjacent to this part 12, that charcoal will become ignited rather quickly and serve, in turn, to rapidly ignite the charcoal above it. Also, 'it may be seen that the upwardly tapering walls 13 will prevent to a large degree the charcoal from spreading out over a greater area than is taken up by the part 12, thus further tending to concentrate the fire and causing the entire amount of charcoal to become ignited quickly. a

Y As has been noted above, the upper part 11 of the present invention is of such configuration that it may be readily molded by known pulp molding procedures. In addition, however, it is to be observed that the lower part 12 also is such as to lend no difliculty to the usual pulp molding procedures and, in addition, is not subject to the warpage which has sometimes plagued those skilled in the art when making an item of molded pulp which is generally flat. It will be understood that once the part 13 is molded, it is -treatedes a tray and is filled with charcoal in known manner. Thereafter, the part 12 is handled as a cover andis secured to the part 13 by a suitable adhesive material; In use, of course, the bottom part 12 serves the function of a tray, i.e., it supports from below, and the upper part 11 acts as retaining walls and cover.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and therefore the invention is not limited to what is shown in the drawings and described in the specfication but only as indicated in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A dustproof rapidly burnable package of charcoal in a paper product container, wherein there are provided a spaced bottom and top, exterior walls and a central chimney, the bottom walls, top and chimney defining a charcoal-containing closed space about the chimney, the improvements comprising; the chimney tapering downwardly and being relatively wider at the top and relatively narrower at the bottom, the base being relatively larger than the top, and said. exterior walls tapering upwardlyfrom said relatively larger base to said relatively smaller top, whereby a large amount of paper product kindling material is at the bottom and the charcoal will feed inwardly to the chimney space when the chimney burns away.

2. The package of claim 1, wherein the top, chimney and exterior walls are integral.

3. The package of claim 1, said bottom having air passages therein communicating the base of the chimney with the atmosphere exteriorly of said package.

Heron May 22, 1934 Chaplin May 13, 1958 

1. A DUSTPROOF RAPIDLY BURNABLE PACKAGE OF CHARCOAL IN A PAPER PRODUCT CONTAINER, WHEREIN THERE ARE PROVIDED A SPACED BOTTOM AND TOP, EXTERIOR WALLS AND A CENTRAL CHIMNEY, THE BOTTOM WALLS, TOP AND CHIMNEY DEFINING A CHARCOAL-CONTAINING CLOSED SPACE ABOUT THE CHIMNEY, THE IMPROVEMENTS COMPRISING, THE CHIMNEY TAPERING DOWNWARDLY AND BEING RELATIVELY WIDER AT THE TOP AND RELATIVELY NARROWER AT THE BOTTOM, THE BASE BEING RELATIVELY LARGER THAN THE TOP, AND SAID EXTERIOR WALLS TAPERING UPWARDLY FROM SAID RELATIVELY LARGER BASE TO SAID RELATIVELY SMALLER TOP, WHEREBY A LARGE AMOUNT OF PAPER PRODUCT KINDLING MATERIAL IS AT THE BOTTOM AND THE CHARCOAL WILL FEED INWARDLY TO THE CHIMNEY SPACE WHEN THE CHIMNEY BURNS AWAY. 